Teams of enterprising students from across the UK will compete to be named Best Overall Company at the Young Enterprise Company Final. Supported by HSBC, the event takes place on the 2nd July at the BFI Southbank.
Fourteen teams will represent regions across the UK including Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Gibraltar competing for eight awards. The teams have all gone through a ...

The more independent directors a company board has the more debt with longer maturity lenders are willing to give a firm, according to recent research.
Under the watchful gaze of a strict board the management are also far more likely to be careful with the company cash flow. Such a level of control can help abate the agency cost of debt Ã¢â‚¬â€œ the increase in the cost of debt when the intere...

Records and information managers (RIMs) belong at the heart of an organisation’s information management strategy. They are responsible for knowing what information exists, who has or has had access to it, where it is now, how safe it is and when it’s time to let it go. These activities are critical for protecting information and enabling organisations to make the most of ...

More media coverage of a CEO is a “channel of investor recognition” that also helps the chief executive extract higher compensation, says the study published in the Quarterly Journal of Finance.
“The study shows that, in the long term, if a firm’s CEO attracts more media coverage the firm will do better in terms of valuation,” says Bang Dang Nguyen, University Lecturer in Finance and Dire...

Concluding his checklist of spring tasks for the entrepreneur, John Coldicutt turns his attention to continuing competitiveness.
When talking to most business owners many will tell you they want to stay ahead of the curve. However, in a business world where continuous change is the norm, how is this possible? What are the things that business owners should be thinking about and how ...

Our penultimate checklist for entrepreneurs running a hoover over their business focuses on results.
When it comes to seeing results, there are often two groups that business owners fall into – the group that gets things done, and the group that doesn’t. Needless to say, successful business people are the ones who consistently reach the highest standards, but not before they&r...

Continuing our mini-series on business renewal, let’s now think about getting leaner!
Spring is the perfect season to take a step back and get excited about your business again. It’s a great time to evaluate how far you have come and where you want to go, as well as looking at the opportunities to reinvigorate or improve your business. Every opportunity for change ...

May is the month for renewal; for some it will be the new financial year; for our UK readers a new government may be what concentrates the mind. With spring around the corner and the new financial year about to kick in for some, now is the time to take a step back and give yourself an overhaul ready for the busy months ahead. As many business owners will admit, self interest tends to take a ba...

As thousands of University students get ready to take their final exams and start competing for graduate jobs, new research from global management consultancy, Hay Group, has found that 92 percent of global business leaders and HR directors believe that graduates with soft skills will be increasingly important as globalisation speeds up and organisational structures change. While graduates hav...

The UK mid-market could be on the verge of a wave of pressurised sales according to new research. A study carried out by national law firm Mills & Reeve is based on the opinions of 500 leaders of medium sized businesses, reveals that many are looking to sell even if they could scale up and increase the value of their business in the long term, causing an unwelcome drag on the UK economy.
...

A new European research report commissioned by Ricoh and conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows how key business leaders are at last getting their heads round new technology. The report is entitled ‘Automated, creative and dispersed: The future of work in the 21st century’.
As well as summarising views from key business academics and experts – including Paulo de Sa, VP of em...

The latest research from global management consultancy Hay Group reveals that a poor job description is one of the principal drivers of staff turnover in companies of all sizes across the UK, USA and Australia.
The research shows that not being a good fit for the role and the job description misleading an employee’s expectations are the most important reasons employees ...

We all know that the job market can be tough and competitive, so setting yourself apart from the crowd is vital. Once you’ve got past the first hurdle of being invited for interview, the second is getting through it without saying something you’ll live to regret.
Here are ten things you should definitely avoid saying during an interview:
1. “I’m too much of a perfectionist”
W...

The law profession used to be a clearly mapped out career, rather like banking. That model no longer suits business clients, nor does it suit the brightest new entrants: we asked Orlando Casares, founder and Principal of 70-member global legal network FLI International to share his vision for a new and more effective corporate legal methodology
What prompted you to build your own legal n...

Recent reports that the NHS spends up to £2.5 billion a year on agency staff have sparked outrage throughout the media and amongst the general public. Concern was fuelled by the discovery that one NHS hospital had paid an agency nurse £2,200 to work a single twelve hour shift, and by a report from cross-party thinktank Civitas that called for a broader pool of permanent staff to enhance workfo...